#im gonna show him youll see: jinx interaction

[shimmerbeasts]

Caitlyn walked through the busy tavern, still covered from head to toe with her cloak, as she made her way, sitting on the table that was hidden in the corner of the place. "You are a hard woman to find, Jinx." She said, talking to the other cloaked figure on the table as she removed her hood, revealing her eyepatch-covered face, and a strange smile. "But then again, I did always enjoy chasing after you"

"...how have you been?"

This tavern served different foods than Jinx was used to. While it had been easy to become accustomed to Ionia's meals as they equally regularly relied on fish, there was something about the way things were prepared, which felt completely alien to Jinx. The rolls of seaweed, rice, and a tiny sliver of raw fish were served as appetisers instead of the main dish.

Said main dish rested in a bowl in front of Jinx. Noodles, which were thicker than she was used to, with some minced meat sauce. Zaun's only meat source usually was other people and you could taste that, even if the meat was minced. Eating minced beef was new. At first the richness and fullness of the meals, Jinx had found, had been a bit too much for her frail, constantly starved stomach. It had gotten better these days. Though she still fought a lot with the chopsticks, Ionians used to handle their meals. Her metal finger almost refused to bend properly for those things!

Jinx had been in the process of angling a few sauce-soaked noodles towards her mouth when another hooded figure approached her. The Loose Canon nowadays still wore the shark hoodie, she had worn during the big battle against Noxus and Viktor's robot army. "Do I know you?", asked Jinx, even though the voice sounded familiar.

Her mouthful of food was half past her lips when Caitlyn dropped her hood. Purple eyes grew wide as Jinx involuntarily gawked at the Sherrif's eyepatch. Her smile was strange. Kinder than she remembered it from the last time they had seen each other. Jinx slowly swallowed her mouthful of noodles and put the chopsticks beside the bowl.

I am so tempted to make a pirate joke right now.

She smiled back and said: "Well, the hunt for the most valuable treasure is always the most rewarding, is it not? I didn't expect to ever see you again, Caitlyn. Does Vi know you looked for me? After all, you are pretty far away from Piltover."

She smiled gleefully. Jinx said: "I am feeling better than I have in a long time. I feel lighter, and more at ease. Not even my name feels like it weighs a hundred stones like it did in the past. However, I think I still need to get a better hang of how to pilot that stolen airship. It is fun, but also a bit tricky. I can't really control which way I am flying. But that does harbour a thrill to it. Never know where I end up. I do so love surprises. What about you, eyecap? Still Sherrif of the Pilties?"

[shimmerbeasts]

Jinx tsked softly at Vi's words. The idea that someone assumed they could ever use a monster for their personal benefit was ludicrous. Monsters could not be tamed or chained. You could not direct them to do what you wanted. Eventually, they always broke out of their restraints and vowed bitter revenge. It was not a question of If, but of When.

"You should never defang yourself for anybody", Jinx replied, "That was one of the first lessons, Silco taught me. Whatever Marcus attempted to do, was control and cage your monster. He should be ashamed of himself for that alone. So yeah, I guess you are right. I am freeing you, sis. And of course, I accept you as Ironheart and as Vi. You accepted Jinx, which is more than I ever expected to happen."

Vi inspected the Shimmer with a certain reverence. She was different from the addicts, the Loose Canon had seen on the street. How they would all fall over each other and scramble across the ground for even a drop of the purple gold. There was no reverence towards the gift her father had given the Undercity. Just a mad chase for power when most people probably did not even understand that word. Silco had explained it to her. Power only came to those who were willing to do whatever it took to achieve it. The power Shimmer granted you was a shortcut, and the mad race was a copout.

Her brows curved upwards and her lips trembled. Jinx shifted around from side to side as Vi remarked that she had realised that Silco and her father were one and the same person. Oh, no! Jinx had jinxed it again! She had to have! Vi would hate Silco. She probably remembered everything and ...

Before Jinx could get trapped in her worries, Vi's hand placed itself on her cheek and chased away the thoughts. Her sister's fingers brushed her bangs away, making the younger girl meet her gaze. Vi's eyes shone with acceptance, and the knot in Jinx's gut began to loosen with each word spoken. It did not matter to Vi what had happened. She understood how much Silco meant to Jinx. Her heart felt like it wanted to leap out of her throat in joy.

Jinx backed away a touch so that Vi had the space for the Shimmer to unfurl all its effects. Her sister's eyes lit up purple. The Shimmer dosage was not enough to increase her size, however, she looked more alive and thrilled. Her grin was vicious and crude, wild and unbridled. The sigh of satisfaction was like a kiss. Jinx smiled a sly grin of pride as her sister became pumped up.

"My father calls it Shimmer", Jinx said, "It has to be without a doubt the most powerful chemical concoction the Undercity has ever devised. It can heal you, make you stronger, faster, more savage. It is so valuable people have colloquially started to call it purple gold. And well, if you want to tear into an Enforcer, how about we found ourselves some quarrel?"

From the moment Vi had stepped into the lanes, she knew something must have happened that put herself on this Silco's bad side. The way Jinx was talking, about her Papa, and what kind of role those who worked around him played... She didn't wonder if they were the same person. In fact recalled fighting some chick named Sevika in the same bar that this guy owned, which is why those goons were after her in the first place. But if that were the case, why would her sister be with him?

For the time being Vi decided not to air her thoughts just yet. Better to bring it up later rather than now, when her sister was so happy. Hell, when she herself was so happy. Because not only was her sister welcoming her with open arms, she welcomed the monster too. When most outright shun her for who she was. But Jinx? It seemed like she loved every part of her, monster and all. That was enough to make her heart melt.

"Everyone else, has only ever wanted to use my monster for their own personal benefit." Vi smiled at Jinx, with the warmth and love that a sister would give as Jinx stepped away. "Because of that I've never been free, until now. You want to me free me, don't you? Not just for you, but for me. You're the first one who accepts all of me, Iron hands and Vi..."

Admittedly when asked if her sister anything that would give a kick, she didn't expect her to be able to find one so quick. Hell, she barely had any time to herself when she'd returned with a purple vial. The same one she had seen some of the people on streets taking in peripheral. Even then she had been half tempted to snatch it from then, but now she didn't. And when the vial was offered, she did not hesitate to take it, studying it close, watching as the liquid swirled inside in.

"Before I take this, I have to say something, Jinx." Violet blue flickered from the vial to Sapphire. "I know you don't want me to remember whatever happened with Silco, but he is your Papa, isn't he?" A quick study of her body language, and the clear emotion of her face would be an easy giveaway to answer Vi already knew. "I kind of pieced that together, the way you were talking about him but I want you to know, that it doesn't change anything."

Vi reached out once more to brush a bang out of Jinx's hair, acceptance in her eyes. "If he means that much to you, it doesn't matter what happened." Without further delay, Vi turned her attention once more to the shimmer. She could already feel the excitement hit long before she down the vial like a shot.

The effect was instant, as her eyes lit such a beautiful purple, and a burst of energy hit her all at once. Something else too, a thrill unlike she'd experienced before, one that even surpassed what she ever felt in those cells. A Cheshire like grin spread across her face, followed a by a satisfied sigh.

"God what is this stuff? I feel like I could rip apart enforcers with this stuff." Her voice took a deeper tone, more animalistic with her fangs on full display, she could barely even feel her claws pressing into her skin. "I feel like I'm ready to tear into anyone and I want more."

[shimmerbeasts]

Stalking The Wounded Dog

Following Vi had been a thing of ease.

When an animal was wounded enough, it usually tried to find refuge in some secluded spot where it could bleed out in peace and safe from the leering eyes of predators. Not Vi though. Vi chose to take her wounds and wear them like black paint on her skin, presenting herself for all the leering predators and their salivating jaws as if she was daring them to rip her apart.

While Jinx apparently made a mockery of Zaun's animalism by becoming more than a predator, Vi made a mockery of her heritage by turning her role in the natural order inside out. Vi had not filed down her fangs and claws as Jinx had feared. She had done something worse. She had traded those weapons for bucking hooves and piercing horns. She had made herself a wounded prey animal and she fought with the fear of death against everybody in that ring.

The air in the hall of the underground fighting ring was stale and dusty. The sickly pale green light of lamps installed in the ceiling reminded Jinx of Zaun. Funny how that worked. Ever since her rocket, it seemed some of her home's violence had spilt over into perfect Piltover. The floor had been busted open to expose the rot underneath.

The hall was packed. A sea of people from the lower houses and classes of Piltover. Enforcers, cobblers, traders. All those, who did not have enough money to live in a house of marble and gold. Jinx thought she could even catch sight of the leering, leathery hides of Zaunites with their flashing fangs, rolling tongues and clicking claws. She let herself be pushed forth by the maelstrom, cocooned in a simple greyish-brown hood to conceal her telltale blue bangs and startling purple eyes. The visitors were creating a pooling river from the betting stands over towards the edges of the arena where you could look inside.

Jinx finally reached the betting stand. In a swing sat a yordle with grey skin and sunken, green eyes; his fat, little body was practically trapped in an ugly, bright yellow jacket. Jinx wondered idly if his guts would spill coins as she watched him munch on a few tentacles, riddled with grittle.

"Yes?", he asked.

"Red betting cards", Jinx ordered, her voice quiet and hoarse. She rummaged in her cloak in search of her coin purse and asked idly: "Is it possible to meet the young upstart post-stage?"

The yordle let out a throaty laugh, spit flying in Jinx's face. She remained unmoving, though her nostrils twitched and her lips pulled down.

"You are a fan of our young upstart, eh?", the ringleader said with a slimy grin on his round, bat-like face, "Can see why. That crazy butch has been wiping the competition left and right since she started here. Brought in a nice sum of money."

"In a manner of speaking", Jinx answered the question, "Now can you arrange this or not?"

The yordle shook his head and said: "Sorry, cutie, but normally, we don't do behind-the-scenes meetings. Though maybe I make an exception for you, sweetie. Go all in with something that is worth it. If our violent panther wins, you are free to meet her."

Jinx reached under her cloak again and procured her Zapper pistol. The yordle's eyes went wide. He called: "Oh, that's a fancy gadget you got there, cutie. All in then?" Jinx slammed Zapper on the wood and shoved him in the direction of the yordle. Her voice was like ice as she said: "All in."

The crowd was in uproar as the beginning of the first match drew nearer. Jinx let herself be manoeuvred closer to the edge of the pit. Standing between two other burly men, who almost obscured her from view, a single purple eye stared down at the pit, burning with fever.

The ring leader's voice came over a speaker as he shouted: "Good evening lads and lassies! Welcome to the first round of Piltover's Boxing League! Today we have an exciting match for y'all! Are you ready?" The crowd cheered, whooped and stomped their feet. "In the right corner, we have our defender of the golden belt! Last year's champion! You know him, you love him! Give it up for Thundering Thomas!"

Under a loud roar, a large, muscular man a good two times Vi's size came running into the ring. He only wore a pair of shorts, adorned with the aforementioned golden belt, a heavy leather item, adorned with a giant golden buckle. He had pale blond hair, which looked like he had been struck by lightning once, judging by how weirdly jagged it sat on his head. The man pounded his chest, roaring as loudly as possible while the crowd cheered him on.

Jinx stayed silent, though as the part of the announcement, she was actually here for, came through, she grinned wily. "And in the left corner, we have his challenger! You were just as surprised by her upstart as I was! Give a hearty welcome to the newest and most vicious member of our ring! Don't let her claws hit you. Here is Tigress!"

Excited thrills and whistles could be heard. Someone very drunk in the back row yelled: "Please go out with me!" Jinx gave a derisive snort, however, she gave a hearty clap, her rhythm a similar pattern to the slow clap, Silco had done in the cannery so many years ago. As the yordle prepared to bang the gong, shouting for bets, Jinx merely raised her hand with cold confidence, flashing one of the few red cards in the entire room. She fell silent, purple gaze locked exclusively on Vi as the gong rang in her ears.

@ferinehuntress

[shimmerbeasts]

Sevika puts her cigar down as Jinx hands her a quite heavy package with a purple bow on top. Sevika eyed the younger woman suspiciously for a moment, knowing very well this could be a prank and just praying it wasn't glitter. "That's a... Pretty nice package, did you do it yourself?" Sevika asks, trying to make small talk as she undoes the purple ribbon and starts to unwrap her gift. "Any special reason? It's not my birthday as far as I know..." Sevika didn't get many gifts herself, even from her parents back when she was a kid, so often a gift would come tied to some sort of favor. Steel eyes meet Jinx's once again before she finishes unwrapping her gift, blinking and looking between the newly unwrapped object and Jinx.

Sevika's mistrust wasn't unwarranted. In the past, Jinx had often made the older woman an unwanted guinea pig for her traps and contraptions to see if her deceptions worked. Sure, at most, the brutish bear got a fistful of glitter blown right into her face, however, the experiences still taught Silco's deputy to treat everything the Loose Canon gave her like a bomb.

This time, there was no deception going on. As far as the Loose Canon was concerned, the time for deception, games and trickery were over. Certainly when it came to someone like Sevika. As the brown woman asked if Jinx had made the package herself, the blue-haired lunatic nodded.

"I know Violet destroyed your prosthetic arm", Jinx said, pointing swift fingers at the metal stump with shredded edges on Sevika's left shoulder, "So I thought I help ya out."

Upon unwrapping, the item revealed itself to be a prosthetic arm, however, at first glance, it did not look like such. The front of the arm seemed to mimic a piranha's short, stout snout with sharp jagged teeth. The maw could be moved and the fangs looked sharp enough to cut through flesh and leave imprints on the bones, if not downright crush them. There was a sleek, narrow, extendable hand in the maw with fully functioning moving fingers. The whole arm was covered in Jinx's graffiti, highlights of green and purple, giving the piranha its eyes, fins and scales.

"You were right", Jinx said, her voice dull, defeated and with a simmering trace of anger, "When you told me Vi had replaced me for that stupid Enforcer girl, I did not want to believe you. But you were right. No matter how much you despise me, you told the truth. You did not lie like Silco and Vi did."

"With Papa dead, the Undercity is gonna have a power vacuum", Jinx continued, purple eyes locked on Sevika, "And you are gonna figure out who fills it. You always do. However, with Piltover likely retaliating, given what I did, we need a direction now more than ever. I don't know who else to turn to but you."

@undercityheathens cont. from here.

[shimmerbeasts]

TEMPTING – VERY TEMPTING. Such an offer, but this one has slipped through her claws once before, and how others had been punished for such bold and daring actions to try and read between the lines. That was her job, her contracts were ironclad and always tilted the scales into her favor, always. She cannot be cheated, she cannot be tricked, she cannot be robbed of what she is owed and this one, well let’s just say that her interest was there and that was free for the time being, everything else afterwards .. well that was going to become costly and this little mortal was already within serious debt, no point in adding to the collector and having countless fight all over the pieces once it comes time to carve her up. “Is this a bad time darling, do you need another forty winks to get some beauty sleep.” A hand on her chest and a coy smile upon her lips, false flattery and mocking words aplenty, but it is the nature of such dealings.  She already had her claws in many little pets within the land, why on earth would she want for anymore than what she had, but then again.  A deal was a deal and a contract was almost mouth watering to cut out her useless debtors and merely go right to the person causing her so much trouble and offer them, well what everyone wants, the deal of a lifetime.  No tricks, no little back doors, just a simple deal, what she wants, in exchange for what she wants, it was truly so simple. She had the blade, a hero, a legend within the land, but how he fights and denies, time and time again, how this ought to work. “I am here, to see if you wish for more from me, your sample, is it not to your liking, and that is nothing compared to what you can have, if you only ask for it.”

"Ha ha ha", Jinx called out, feigning amusement at the joke, "I cannot contain my laughter. Ha ha ha."

Her mismatched eyes drifted over towards Mizora's large, bat-like wings. Bats had hollow bones. It allowed them to fly. They also were particularly fragile and the leathery skin, too, was something, which ought not be damaged. Jinx idly wondered whether or not Mizora would be robbed of the power of flight if she yanked just hard enough, twisted her bones by a joint and caused it to snap. Or perhaps she should take out her dagger and cut into the leathery skin that way.

The thoughts felt good like dipping your bare feet into the warm waters of a boiling spring. They coaxed a sly smile out of Jinx's lips and her tail flicked from one side to the next. Still, she forced the contemplation down. As much as she wanted to do it - and that desire burned to the point her muscles cramped -, she knew it would jeopardise Wyll's safety and hers. The tiefling could not let that happen.

Hearing Mizora ask her what she wanted, if she wanted more power, the warlock began to pace back and forth like a displacer beast in a cage, large tentacles flicking back and forth. Powder peered after her, the familiar's tail matching her tail's slow curls and flicks. Jinx closed her fingers around her chin as she thought long and hard. Finally, she stopped and looked at Mizora.

"Here is the kicker", Jinx admitted, "I am not really after more power, so I really do not know how to ask for what I want. I am more invested in what's going on in here." She tapped a clawed finger against her temple. "Not the tadpole, mind yah! I am more interested in the whole other stuff. All these images and intrusive thoughts... I do not wanna get rid of them. But I do wanna understand them better. I think in the past, I specifically chose to become a ranger to understand what goes on in my head, but it didn't lead to the result, I wanted. Hunting game in the woods and even hunting people is different than the way people are, well, diabolical. Soooo, do you think you can help me on that front? Or is that out of a devil's skill book?"

@fallesto cont. from here.

[shimmerbeasts]

Seeing Vi press a hand on her stomach in discomfort and avoid her eyes made Jinx want to shove her hand into her sister's mouth. Force her fingers against the roof of Vi's mouth, slamming against the back of the throat to trigger her gag reflex. Her sister had forgotten her carnivorous and cannibalistic nature. Vi ought to taste human flesh. And if it had to be Jinx's fingers as she gasped and retched, coating the Loose Canon's hand in spit, then so be it.

Her sister's words were an insult to hear. Vi was practically denying her Zaunite nature. And for what? Because she wanted to claim some kind of moral superiority? Having nothing to do with Sherrif Charlatan? Ha! Don't make me laugh! You are just doing all of that to impress her. Admit it! Every child in Zaun learned never to throw away anything. You always found some way to repurpose it, to extend it beyond its original use. What else was eating a corpse than giving the survivors to live one more day? To go to bed with a full belly; something which happened far too rarely in the lanes.

"Oh, really?", Jinx whispered as Vi claimed her fangs were still sharp and her claws had the strength to match. She did not even flinch when her sister snapped at her in a brief threat display. Instead, the Loose Canon lowered her gaze and raised her brows up. Pushing her underlip forward, the purple eyes turned into those of a little kitten, making the manic girl look far too much like Powder for comfort.

"Prove it then", she said, "Strike me." I am ready for you now. She smiled and cocked her head, exposing the soft, squishy flesh of her cheeks. The feeling of her sister's hand making contact with her skin rang through her mind and somehow her mania transformed her usual fear into ecstasy. "Or must I turn the other cheek first?"

The tension was starting to boil over, whether that be because Jinx kept goading Vi on or because their differing worldviews meant they were bound to clash eventually. With Vi looming in front of her, hand on Zapper and shoving the barrel downward, Jinx was tempted to angle the weapon at the right angle to shoot her in the foot. However, for now, she listened to her sister's story. Her face dipped into a scowl, the longer Vi spoke.

It would be just like Piltover to think they could just wring the ferocity and monstrosity out of a Zaunite. Stillwater Hold was hell, as many survivors liked to say. Vi's stories matched everything. And even though her indomitable spirit and that iron will to return to Jinx was nothing to sneeze at, the Loose Canon could not appreciate it. Not if it meant giving Caitlyn leverage over her sister. Not if it meant that she owed that Kiramman brat some form of gratitude. Besides, what was her gratitude worth anyway? Stillwater had broken Vi down anyway. And Caitlyn Kiramman had scooped up the broken pieces to make her sister her little plaything.

Vi did not have to ask Jinx twice to shoot. In fact, the moment her sister mentioned them getting into a real fight, the Loose Canon was already hyped up like she had just spotted the brightest fireworks. Her sister could claim that she was still ferocious all she wanted, but Jinx would only believe it when she saw it. Besides, right now, there was no stupid Sherrif following them. For once, it was just them. Exactly how Jinx liked it.

Zapper's hammer slammed against the back of the barrel as she fired a bullet right against Vi's thigh. Jinx twisted herself in her sister's grasp and slammed her boot against the older Zaunite's stomach to get distance between the two of them. She roared with laughter as she twirled her pistol in one hand and lined the weapon up for another shot.

"Bring it, tiger mummy!"

@feraldames

The fact she could see a dead man’s bone being used for a weapon sent chills down her spine. Her sister had eaten him. ATE HIM! It sent disgust down her throat and make her stomach twist as if she wanted to lose the fish her sister had fed her. Her hand pressed up against her stomach to calm herself down, to keep herself from snapping out. Why did her sister love the twisted traditions in Zaun? it disgusted her just to eat someone she didn’t know. They had to do that to survive, but what Jinx did had been wanted and her voice sounded please to do it.

“Do you know how.... I never wanted that for you! And Caitlyn has nothing to do with it. This had been my want. I never wanted to eat other people, never even wanted to eat our parents. They should be buried, return to the earth. Not... our stomachs,” Vi visibly cringed as she hissed slightly. “My teeth are just as sharp and my claws just as deadly; you should know that. I can easily prove it,” Vi snapped her teeth together, insulted by Jinx’s assumption that she had lost her animalistic nature. In fact, she felt more in her skin than she had in a long time. Being free from the prison, from those who leashed her, her power was her own once more.

Vi’s instinct caused her to jump up as Jinx switched gears. The pistol moved with such speed, but Vi’s hand reached out and grabbed the barrel and shoved it toward the ground and hissed. “I do dare!” Vi stated firmly and shook her head with annoyance. “I remember it, Its powder! You were never a jinx!”

The last words stun, as Vi glared and her teeth brandished even sharper. She had no idea what she went through in that prison, the years she spent tortured and starved. Worse than living on the streets of Zaun; Vi had to literally fight every hour, rather than the avoidance of fighting in Zaun. The words were vastly different, and this little girl had no idea what she was saying. “I spent so many years on that ground, trying to find a way out to you. I tried to escape! I swam across the pilt only to be captured, and throwing in the Darkin Hole for a week, and then punished for an entire month. I was beaten any time I said Powder, and I was neglected food. You have no IDEA the hell I went through, so don’t you dare think you understand the torment of my life. It was worse than Zaun, worse than any torment we ever lived with dealing with the enforcers. If not for Caitlyn, I would have never had a chance to escape.”

If only Jinx knew that Vi had originally used Caitlyn, expecting to leave her behind. But then things changed, the moment Caitlyn saved her life from Sevika, staying by her side as she was dying; Caitlyn became just as important to her as Jinx. They both mattered, but Jinx didn’t seem to want to believe that. She wanted to be the only one who mattered when Vi loved multiple people. “I escaped for you! But I don’t even know who you are anymore, and it hurts. So if you're going to be shot me, shot me! Then we’ll get into a real fight.”

[shimmerbeasts]

Isha bounces excitedly where she sits, a smile on her lips as her tiny fists clasp together, watching as Jinx explains every step of the bomb they were building together. She wore her hat, a bit too big for her own head as her small, blue dyed braids peaked out of it. She offers Jinx a nod when she says the last step is dumping a handful of nails. “Your hand or mine?” She asks, tilting her head as she looks down at her own hands, small and chubby while Jinx's were bigger, longer, Isha bet she could fit waaay more nails within her more slender palms. Isha bounced to her feet as Jinx motioned to where the nails were and rushed to go get them, returning with a smile and a bag. She picked up two handfuls of nails and dropped inside the small capsule, picking it up and pulling it close to her face, looking inside with one eye. “It's gonna go boom! And the nails are gonna poke everyone, and make holes in them! Like an angry porcupine!” She giggles and holds the bomb lid, smiling excitedly at Jinx as she closes the capsule, the metal still clean, free of Jinx's usual art, today was Isha who was going to paint and name this one. Her first friend. No. No, it wasn't her first friend. Jinx was. Jinx was her first friend, her best friend, her only friend. “I get to name it?” She asks, looking up at her with big, golden eyes. “And paint him?” She asks, looking down turning the capsule around in her small hands. “I wanna name it Quills…” She smiles wide, looking up at Jinx again.

At the question of whose hand to use, Jinx could not help but raise a hand to inspect her own hand. Sevika had wrapped a bandage around her hand. It still felt alien to be missing a finger. Caitlyn's magical-infused bullet had cauterised the wound in the shot and yet the burn still hurt so much that Jinx could not work on replacing her finger. Not yet. Plus inhaling so much of the grey had weakened her.

"How about we both use our hands, Isha?", Jinx proposed, "One half handful each? Then this little guy has plenty of nails in their arsenal." She gave a weary laugh as Isha rushed to get the bag of nails. Putting a hand on her chest, feeling her lungs strain against her ribs, she gave a soft groan. Hopefully, that weakness of breath would pass soon.

As Isha dumped in nails eagerly, Jinx scooped up a small pile with her healthy hand and dropped them on top of hers. Grinning slyly, she said: "Oh, absolutely. It is gonna go BOOM and the nails will leave lots of little knicks in people's skin. Maybe they even cost someone their eye." She shut one of her eyes, made a weird bleh sound and stuck out her tongue.

"Yeah", Jinx reiterated as if this was not even a question for her, "You are painting them, are you not? So you get to decide who they are." The Loose Canon saluted the little toy. She said: "A worthy name for a strong adversary. Mister Quills, may you hurt many people you come across."

She stood up and got the crayons and paints. Placing the boxes and bottles beside Isha, she said: "Go on. Knock yourself out, kid."

@tiinypowpow cont. from here.

[shimmerbeasts]

The nail polish dripped off the small brush as Jinx pulled it out of the small vial. She sat on Silco's desk, nursing Silco's hand on her knee. Jinx carefully and methodically began applying the nail polish to Silco's nails. Red, green, red, green, ad infinitum. Red for the deaths the Sickly Months brought. Green for the diseases, Zaun had learned to fear. All because those pesky Pilties did not give a damn about the ways their trading seasons endangered their darker sister.

Jinx hummed under her breath. Putting the brush back into the jar of nail polish, she raised Silco's hand up by the wrist and breathed with a low whistle across it to help the paint dry. A small smile crept across her face, showing off her fangs. She had tried painting her canines red and green too, using a mirror. Her work had not been too perfect, paint smudging against her gums.

"Other hand, Papa?", she requested, waiting for Silco to hand her his other hand. Jinx picked up the red nail polish. Stirring the brush in the bottleneck, listening to the squishing of the paint, she asked: "Who do you think is gonna dress up as the Pale Death for today's festivals? Ooohh, did we make pastries?! I bet Sevika forgot again!"

The Pale Death was what Zaunites called their iteration of Kindred. A large humanoid chimaera of a wolf and a lamb. With sickly grey fur and shades of green, the Pale Death was best known for having the skull of a wolf for its head and a thick layer of lamb wool on its shoulders. Zaunites tended to copy this by wearing white scarves and animal skulls. The tradition dictated that they tried to stave off death's presence by offering it parts of their meals to compel it to walk past their house.

@reverentlit liked for a Christmas (my version) themed starter.

[shimmerbeasts]

"Deep breath, I have you." - @zaunseye

Gentle Care||Accepting.

"My feet are not touching the bottom!" Water splashed around Jinx's arms and torso as she paddled with her limbs in the river. Her body shuddered. Even though Silco had taken the height of summer for this swimming lesson, she still felt a bit cold. Never mind that bopping up and down like this was rather spooky.

"This is terrifying!"

Under loud splashes, Jinx paddled more than she actually swam in the direction of Silco's arms. Stupid tall man with his stupid long legs! Why could he stand in this area of the river, while she already would be chin under water if her feet touched the ground? Finally, after a few more strokes of her arms, Jinx landed in Silco's embrace. Clutching her hands against his upper arms, the little girl gasped and shuddered. Her muscles still twitched restlessly, however, as the minutes ticked by, she began to calm down some more.

Part of her wanted to get back to the shore and out of the water, but Silco insisted that she had to keep practising. Something about wanting to ensure that she never drowned. Jinx was pretty sure that Silco did not just mean the actual act of drowning. This was about his whole repeated story with Vander. He was like a brother and he betrayed him and bla, bla, bla!

His words helped ground her. Silco would not let her drown. He'd pull her to safety if she messed up. She could mess up around him. He had promised that it was okay, that he loved her and would not think less of her because of her slip-ups. The waves, touching her hips, still freaked her out a bit. They made her think of the slimy tentacles, Jericho sold. They were goating her on, wanting to pull her beneath them. Jinx pouted and angrily glowered at the river. She would not let it claim her!

"I am ready to try again."

[shimmerbeasts]

A nasty cackle escaped Jinx's lips. Her condescension now clearly was reserved for Piltover and not Viktor. She mocked: "Knew that Wonder Plunder was not all he cracked up to be. Hey, Jim Thaler! Might wanna give some credit to those who helped you make that leap of discovery in the first place. Janna, his notes were a bore to read. I mean, they got me what I needed, but could you be any more pretentious? Who signs his notes but a Piltie, who would pee himself at the sight of his own statue?"

Her gaze turned back to Viktor after she had delivered her shot. Zapper was still smoking. Her tongue clicked against sharp fangs. Will you look at that? The Metal Fortune Cookie actually has a spine. Seeing Viktor rise to his full height, which was surprisingly tall, reminded Jinx of gang leaders who had shown up at the scene of a crime and were preparing to drag the offender over the coals. It seemed even with the fanciful term of a commune, Viktor was still a gang leader. However, his gang was unnatural and seemed to move beyond the mere notion of a gang. A cult. Jinx could not have any respect for a cult.

"Why?", Jinx repeated, "Because I could. Because I wanted to help. You claim you want what's best for your community. Then let them eat. But you don't, aren't you?"

Her pistol pointed at the addicts, the ones unchanged by the man before her, who had ripped and sliced off chunks of meat from the carcass before it could even chill. They were scarfing the deceased down with the vigour of someone who had not had a full stomach in months. And yet Viktor's commune members idled around, inspecting the body with a detached curiosity. Though some of them showed signs of drool in the corners of their mouths.

"They want to eat, don't they?", Jinx whispered, "I can see the traces of them salivating. And if you were not here, they would join this group quite easily. But they don't because you hold them back. They have to stick to cantaloupes because that is what you tell them."

Viktor and she continued to stare at each other. Jinx's nose twitched. All that metal and shining wires and bolts made it hard to identify if the man before her had any Vastayan heritage. And the only thing, she could smell was iron, the faint traces of human flesh, and something which seemed to change its scent mark faster than her nose could identify it. It added to Viktor's unnaturalness and made her dislike him even more.

"Don't!", Jinx cut him short, bitterness in her tone, "Don't you think about it! Don't you dare to pretend that you know shit about me because of your stupid access to the realm of hibby jibbies. You even admit to yourself that what you do, is unnatural. I am not gonna kill any more people here if that is what you worry over. I made my point. The most unnatural thing in this whole place is you. They can call you the Herald all they want. You are just a Metal Fortune Cookie, who someone regurgitated and left on the side of the road. You don't get to try to cure me! And you certainly do not get to pretend that you know anything of my pain."

Viktor would sneer if he could. Would feel offended if that was permitted to him. How dare she call him a 'Piltie'? How dare his origins mean nothing - not to Jayce, nor anyone else in Piltover, and now even from a Zaunite? It was as if he lived in some form of limbo between the two. Able to see and understand both and yet be rejected by them entirely.

"I am. Yet even we know of rats. We know those in Zaun are on a food chain, and the rats are typically low down, are they not? Are you telling me you find yourself at the same level as them? Perhaps, in a way, you are right.. You suffer just the same. I can feel it. It just was presented to you differently."

Viktor kept his face tilted up as the weapon was aimed at him. One of his lower eyelids twitched, but otherwise his face didn't change. "Oh I remember the violence. The blood, the deaths. Ironic you claim I cannot know you, yet you think you know what I have been doing in Piltover. Who do you think created the Hextech you are now holding to my face? A Piltovian? On his own?" Viktor scoffed, a small upward turn to his lip. An almost dark shade of pearl covered his eyes for a moment. "Unlikely..."

When the gun shifted, his gaze followed it. "No!" He called out, but it had been too late. "No..." His eyes widened as he watched the lifeblood flow from the innocent man, breath shaking slightly as it expelled for the final time. "Why...?" Viktor asked with gritted teeth, standing taller than he had been able to with his conditions and staring down at her - towering above.

"Why must you insist on everyone becoming as low as you?" He snarled. He could sense the others...in his mind, somehow. He could feel their anguish and yet their almost overpowering urge to eat. Viktor himself was salivating from their intense hunger in his mind... as if he himself was almost compelled to dine. He knew they were struggling to keep themselves at bay. But he was of Freljord blood, with no Vastayan in sight. So, Viktor was able to wash his mind clean of such thoughts. It was only for extreme circumstances in Freljord, even then it was at a great shame from what he knew of his parents homeland. His calm, his influence, had overcome the others in the hivemind as well and they stood firm. The other addicts that hadn't been touched by Viktor yet had scrambled forward, feasting on the remains before they had even chilled.

Viktor looked away, his gaze sharp as he stared down at Jinx instead. "It seems not all are as monstrous as you would like them to be. It is only you. You want them all to be you, don't you? To suffer as you do. They cannot be allowed to find peace because you cannot. They cannot break from the natural order because you refuse to. It doesn't have to be that way..." His voice seemed to soften just a little. "So much aches inside you. I can feel it. I can stop it..."

[shimmerbeasts]

" you seem to think you're gonna be able to walk away from this. " (for jinx)

Intimidation Prompts||Accepting.

She had returned.

Of course, she had. From Jinx's own experience, the past was hard to shake off. It called to you like a siren's song, drew you back to certain places. Often your feet carried you without your permission. They would carry Jinx to the old arcade with toys dusty and shabby, yet functioning, for something in Jinx felt the desire to tend to them. To fix them whenever they had a crook in their posture or chipped-off paint on their exterior. Vi had always said she could fix anything. And so Jinx went to work: Tightening screws, fastening bolts, swapping out chemicals, reapplying paint. She had lost count of how often she brought the old arcade back to life when she had nothing else to do. Until Vi and that pesky Piltie girlfriend of hers had chosen to flood the arcade with the Grey! Tainting everything! Ruining the last safe place, Powder had known.

Somehow, Jinx doubted the place where they were now, was associated with happy memories. After all, this was where Caitlyn and Vi had tried to kill her as much as she had tried to kill them. Though if she were honest, she had been after Vi more. After all, Vi was family. Vi had turned away from her. So what if that made Jinx commit familicide? She'd done it often enough! By now she was even more of a familicide killer than Silco. Caitlyn would have been a nice kill too. The type of kill, from which you could peel off the meat. Jinx smacked her tongue idly against the roof of her mouth. She still remembered how soft and clean Caitlyn's skin had been, how barely marred from scarring.

They could not even get into the actual crime scene anymore. Only this well with the rungs in one part of the wall and the collapsed tunnel on the other side. Jinx's charcoal drawing of Powder on the stone, blocking the entrance, showed a couple of dents. It seemed Caitlyn had returned multiple times in an almost foolish attempt to dig her way through the rock. Maybe she was hoping that Jinx was still trapped behind that wall, against all odds. As if you could ever trap a Zaunite in a tunnelling system. They were the ones, who had dug for Piltover's minerals in the city's founding days. Navigating dark, dense corridors with air so thick it clogged your throat was in their blood.

She was doing it even now, slamming the butt of her rifle against the rock, cracking some of the paint. Though even if she had used all her might, there was no way Caitlyn could fully dig through that rock. She seemed to have realised that too, for she stopped, shoulders slumped and murmured something under exhaustion. Jinx had to strain her ears to hear it.

"You seem to think you're gonna be able to walk away from this."

"I already have."

Jinx's voice was a quiet whisper, just subtle enough that you might think it was the wind and maybe your head was playing tricks on you. Her metal finger softly rubbed against her flesh fingers. The way Caitlyn had shot off her actual finger had hurt, yet despite the shock and panic, Jinx had still been able to see the rage and frustration in her opponent's face. Caitlyn hated that she had been unable to kill her with that shot. She hated the fact that she had missed her shot. She must have thought herself some big, fat hero, avenging her Mummy.

The Loose Canon was sitting on a pipe, almost concealed by the darkness as she hugged the ceiling with her back. Her purple eyes locked onto Caitlyn's back. it would be so easy to pull Zapper out and fire. Jinx wondered idly if Caitlyn would be able to taste the bone of the bullet before she died. But that was not what she had dragged all the way up here.

"Tell me, how does it feel to be orphaned?", Jinx asked idly, "After all, you still have plenty of food and a roof to sleep under. You still have your family name. You did not lose any valuable safety net. You lost your mother. But you are so rich. I am sure you could pay some poor Zaunite cleaner woman to fill that role."

She gave a gentle nudge to the bundled-up figure, she had kept on the pipe beside her. It spun through the air before it came crashing onto the ground right behind Caitlyn. The figure was a life-sized effigy of Cassandra Kiramman, even dressed in a black robe with a white blouse. There was a clicking and ticking noise as a mechanism inside the effigy sprang to life. The body twisted and bent, writhed on the ground like something in pain before under a loud peng, its ribcage burst open and dripping, deep red paint covered the effigy, the floor and parts of Caitlyn's arrogant, new cape.

Jinx peeled herself out of the darkness as she descended the pipe. Pale-white skin, stark, cobalt blue hair, bound into two long, thin braids and a pair of hungry, knowing, purple eyes. The young Zaunite smiled at Caitlyn as she placed a boot against the edge of the effigy as if she meant to cut off Cassandra's air supply.

"Hello", purred Jinx.

[shimmerbeasts]

RP: Found Culprit

"What?! Are you telling me you, brat, do not even have the galls to finish me after all of this?!"

Despite the man's attempt to yell as loudly as possible, his voice was hoarse and shaky. His body had exhausted itself screaming in agony over the last couple of hours. He was marked by signs of torture. Bruises, the size of balled fists and knuckle imprints bloomed across his torso, belly and back. One of his eyes had swollen shut, blood dropped from a busted, split lip and his hair had a sweaty dampness to it.

The man was kneeling on the floor with thick ropes binding his hands behind his back. The cap of one of his knees had jumped out to the side, making the entire knee swell and turn dark purple-blue. It stood in stark contrast to the man's chalk-whiteness.

Jinx had disappeared outside of the front door of the almost empty warehouse. As soon as she had left, Sevika turned around with a far greater speed than expected. The brown woman crossed the space between her and the man, whose nose was still crusted up with the snot of his not-yet-healed disease. Without any hesitation, Sevika shoved two of her metal talons into his nostrils and pushed his head up. The sharp metal cut and irritated the slimy tissue and the man let out a sudden wail.

"She's not a brat", Sevika spat out, "She's the boss's daughter! You watch your mouth around her."

She scowled as she inspected the sniffling man below her before she eased her claws out of his nose. The man sneezed, his body bending forward as if he wanted to protect his vital organs and his face from the sharp metal arm hovering far too close for personal comfort.

However, he wasn't even granted that comfort for as he curled in on himself, the Chompers attached to his belly sunk their iron teeth deeper into his exposed flesh. Tears welled up in his eyes before he uncurled himself. The grenades continued to jiggle in him but remained blissfully untriggered. His dried blood had mixed with the smell of the urine, he must have let go off in the early hours of torture.

Sevika scoffed in disappointment. The men working for other Chem-Barons became more lacklustre as time dragged on. Silco was right. The whole rabble had turned into parasites, dulling their claws and fangs in the process. Lowlife vermin, which could not even stick to something as simple as a quarantine during the Sickly Months for their safety. And look where it had gotten them!

"A word of advice:", Sevika spoke and her lips pulled into an unfriendly smile, dark eyes blackening with bile, "Once Silco finds out who's behind his current state, you are going to wish that Jinx in her impulsivity had just killed you."

The door to Silco's office was open with such gusto that it banged loudly against the opposite wall. Only one person would ever have the courage and nerve to barge into the Eye of Zaun's office unannounced and unhindered like that, and that very same person was now standing in the doorway, her chest heaving for she had sprinted from the docks all the way back to The Last Drop.

Where Sevika was tall and a muscular, dark behemoth, Jinx was small, lean and as pale as a ghost. The only stark detail about her appearance was her long cobalt-blue braids, which swayed behind her trembling legs like the nervous tail of a cat. She was dressed in punkish attire from a black tank top to purple striped pants to purple sleeves, ending in a pair of dark, finger-less, leather gloves with golden brass on the knuckles.

Right now, Jinx looked even more dirty than she was anyhow from her experiments and misfiring explosions, covering her in soot and smudges of ash. Her utility belt missed two Chompers and Zapper's barrel tip was darkened from dried up blood. Some blobs still trickled down the edge. Jinx's huge, sapphire-blue eyes were darting around, looking for Silco with an expression of concern, alarm and excitement.

Back when Silco had gotten infected with Noxian Flu from an envoy from another, back then unidentified territory, Jinx had been in a lot of alarm. Most diseases during the Sickly Months could bear quite the fatal results. However, Singed had assured her that with enough Shimmer, some additional medicine as well as lots of rest, her father would recover swiftly, provided he stayed quarantined.

It had only been a couple of days ago that the eerie doctor deemed Silco healthy enough to come back to The Last Drop to do some mild work. Yet even so, Sevika had pulled double duty to ensure none of Silco's plans were delayed. The gang had also done its hardest to ensure that the common people had no idea that the Eye of Zaun had gotten sick to the point he had been bedridden for weeks.

Even so, it was still hard for Jinx to see her father in the state, he was in now. Silco could work mostly normally, however, he still relied on a highly decorative cane to get from one place to the next. Still, the Doctor had said that her Papa had survived the worst of the disease and was well on his way to recovery.

Jinx tried to steady her excitement. Letting the door fall shut behind herself, she rushed over to the desk and with hands slamming upon the wood, she leaned forwards, balancing on the tip of one foot, the other leg kicking up, as Jinx announced with a bright smile:

"WE FOUND THE CULPRIT, PAPA! He works for Finn!"

Starter for @zaunseye.

[shimmerbeasts]

It was another quiet night at The Last Drop. Just enough patrons to justify keeping the doors open, and never a lack of people looking for a stiff drink. Operation had been moving rather smoothly since Vi torn away the ugly signs and even uglier presence that Silco and his goons had filled the bar with in her time away. She wasted no time in tearing away all of that garbage, and polishing the hidden gem of the old rustic bar. Rumor already bumbled around, this Hellhound of the Underground being Vander's prodigy, how the new barkeep even took a name that echoed her adoptive father's title in her own way. Vi felt right at home around the clinking of glasses and the joyful laughs of the patrons. Standing at the bar, the mercenary swiped her bar rag through another bowler glass and set it against the counter, fishing out a bottle of scotch. She swept it up with easy hands and poured the Bilgewater export into the the glass, serving it neat to one of the inebriated consumers sitting at the bar. Just as she moved to put the bottle back, she felt.. Strange. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and there was a sudden pit of dread in her stomach. Her tongue darted out to wet her dry lips, only to find her mouth to be sucked dry as well. She glanced around quickly, finding nothing out of place. It didn't feel like an episode, so what the hell was happening? She opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by the sudden blast of an inferno. The explosion that came from seemingly nowhere was strong enough to rock the very foundation of the bar, the ceiling quivering and dropping particles of dust down, and the first two round tables were engulfed by the blue plume of shimmering smoke. Vi instinctively brought her hands up to defend her face, but she was too slow. A metal band fired off from the hinges and knocked the brawler right in the face, ripping an ugly gash across her cheek and the bridge of her crooked nose, not far below her eye. She dropped to the ground and clutched at her face, hot and panicked breaths escaping her for a moment. She drew her right hand back and stared at the hot blood gathered against it, before she swiped it on her shirt an shoved her hands into the Atlas Gauntlets behind the bar top. She drew a breath in to steady her mind as five distinct scents hit her nose. Blood. Gunpower. Sulfur. Flesh. Smoke. Patrons screamed and panicked, and Vi knew she had to act. Who the hell had just blasted a gaping hole where her front door had been previously been? "Hey asshole, I didn't ask for a remodel!" Vi called out as she jumped the bar suddenly, looking to the patrons who were panicking. She tried to not pay any mind to the four who laid dead on the floor. In a quieter voice, she regarded them. "Back door. Get the hell out. We're closed for the night." She whispered, watching them scramble, before she brought her defensive stance to the door, blading her body. She watched with bated breath as the figure slowly emerged.. And her silvered eyes shimmered with a hint of blue. "Pow-pow?" The name left her lips in a disbelieving tone, and her fists dropped suddenly. No, no, not now. Her gaze only softened for a second, before she drew her brows in and raised her hands again. Her scarred lip drew into a scowl. "The asshole who desecrated this place the first time 'round is dead. What the hell do you think you're doing?" She hated how her voice trembled. She never wanted to talk to her sister like that. But.. Was she still her sister? She was Jinx now, and Vi failed to kick those delusions out. Silco ruined her, and she feared she was too far gone. Even though Vi had her gauntlets on, her fists up... Her certainty wavered.

The patrons of the bar panicked; their shouts and screams, the trampling of their feet filled Jinx with satisfaction and grim pleasure. Whoever had tried to establish themselves here had certainly forgotten the powerful and terrifying Chem-Baron, who had controlled the Lanes for eight, prosperous years. And just as the bar owner had forgotten who ruled this place, so had the patrons.

Furthermore, many had made the mistake of assuming the living legacy of Silco was out for the count. Just because Jinx was no longer as present in the Lanes as she had been when Silco was alive, did not mean that she would not defend what she saw rightfully as belonging to her father and now Sevika.

Even so, nothing could have prepared Jinx for the person who stepped out of the chaos in The Last Drop to confront her. She still wore those heavy, ugly, navy-blue Gauntlets, laced with gold. They did not fit into the environment, marking themselves out as coming from the other side of the river, from Piltover. However, that dark red leather jacket and short, magenta hair, those stark, blazing blue eyes would always be recognisable for her - and seeing her sister right now in that carnage, marking herself as the owner and desecrater of The Last Drop was like a stab through the heart.

"Vi?", whispered Jinx in confusion and could feel herself balk. Her innards twisted and the hair on her neck stood up. She threw her head around in a distressed shake like a shying horse. "No, no, no, no!", she called out, "That cannot be right! This is a lie! A trick!"

However, then Vi's softened expression darkened and her fists rose. She was still wearing those garish Gauntlets, that symbolised the other side. No doubt, Caitlyn Kiramman gave them to her. Anything to make Violet indebted to her and put her on a leash. Anything to give her sister even more of a reason to pull away from Jinx and pretend that she was a stranger.

She mirrored Violet's action, bringing Pow-Pow forth. Her eyes darkened and she blinked angry tears away as she had to hear her once more speak of Silco in such a vile language. Her purple gaze briefly darted over towards the gash underneath her eye, out of which dripped fresh blood.

Jinx spoke angrily: "Do not talk of Silco like that! He took The Last Drop fair and square! Unlike you. Since when do you believe you have any claim towards this bar? I thought you were Topside, chumming it with that Piltie Enforcer buddy of yours." There was a hopeful and maddening gleam in her purple eyes as she called out: "No way! Did she grow tired of her trencher toy?!"

@undercity-merc cont. from here.

[shimmerbeasts]

"And here we go." Jinx softly fastened the last screw. "Now, we are done." Looking at the small mechanical Firelight, she was balancing on her fingers, the Loose Canon giggled in her perch in the rafters. "Go on then. Off you pop."

Jinx flicked her wrist and sent the Firelight flying. Its soft mechanical wiring filled the air as it flew around the office before it dandily landed. on the desk in front of Silco. The moment its two antennas hit, a slightly metallic-sounding voice could be heard: "Hello, hello, hello. This is a pre-recording. Ding, ding, ding. Let's hope this works."

Dialogue starter for @jynxd

[shimmerbeasts]

"I am sorry I lost the target." Jinx sat on Silco's desk, her boots pushed softly against his thighs and her head snuggled against cupped fingers, which held onto the injector. "We passed the old Arcade and suddenly, they were all too loud again. I... I didn't mean to freeze. But it is how the target got away. I don't even remember where it went."

Dialogue starter for @zaunseye.

[shimmerbeasts]

When the young bard's body hit the water, Withers looked up from his scrolls. His eyes soon locked on Jinx, fully knowing what she had done.

"It is no business of mine to prove innocence or guilt," he shrugged. "Or to punish. But know this..."

He raised a finger, wagging it. "The gods are not blind to thy deeds."

Jinx peered back at Withers as he wagged his finger in warning. The tiefling blinked, heterochromatic eyes of demonic purple and blue shimmering in the dim light of the moon above their heads. Her purple tattoo, sprawling across her right eye and the side of her face, twitched in tandem with the sour smile flitting across her features.

Jinx said: "If the gods judge me for every deed I perform, they will have to judge every man, woman and child, who ever raised a hand against someone else, even in play. And what about the animals, Withers? Are they being judged too? Do you judge a wolf for taking down a deer?"

She tapped a clawed finger against her lips as she approached the mummified skeleton and sat down on a small stool near the books, scrolls and other fancy trinkets, he loved reading and tinkering with so much. Jinx plucked the skull of a small critter from a pile and pulled out her knife. Widdling around with it, she proceeded to carefully pry open the back of the skull and scooped out the brain with two fingers. The cold, slimy and awkwardly squishy substance did not even make her flinch.

As Jinx tinkered with the skull, eyes wide and shining in hyper fixation, her tail doing a funny, little twirl around its tip, she continued: "Or would it have been better if I had let her stay in our camp? Even though I gutted her the previous night. Oh, I am sure that would have gone swell! Absolutely perfect. Nobody would freak out at all!" She wiggled her fingers for added dramatics.

"Alternatively, I could have eaten her. I mean, the fire ain't out yet, and I know what pieces of a body are the most nutritious. Oh, great, now I am contemplating if I should have taken out her liver. I am surprised I even forgot to do that. I am normally more meticulous. ... I think I am at least."

Her heterochromatic eyes drifted over towards the fireplace. Most of the embers had died down already and the smoke laced the air like an intoxicating perfume. Jinx dumped the brain on the floor. Holding up the skull, she squinted in curiosity as she examined the empty cavern. Her fangs bit down on her lips as she grinned to herself, delighted by what she was working on.

@withered-scribe cont. from here.